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THE PEOPLE'S KEEPSAKE 



OR, 



FUNERAL ADDRESS 



ON THE DEATH OF 



■ 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN: 



AVITH THE 



PRINCIPAL INCIDENTS OF HIS LIFE. 



DELIVERED 



BY REV. HIRAM SEARS, A. M 




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wl$t 9eopI*'s geepssdb; 



OR, 



FUNERAL ADDRESS 



ON THE DEATH OF 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 



LATE LAMENTED PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 



WITH THE 

PRINCIPAL INCIDENTS OP HIS LIFE. 

DELIVERED 

BY REV. HIRAM SEARS, A. M., 

IN THE CITY OF MOUNT CARMEL, ILL., 

SUNDAY, APRIL 23, I860, 

AND DEDICATED TO THE 

LOYAL MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN OF ALL PARTIES IN THE COUNTRY. 



CINCINNATI: 

POE & HITCHCOCK 



K. P. THOMPSON, PRINTER. 

1865. 



' .8' 



Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1805, 

BY HIRAM SEARS, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 
District of Illinois. 




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FUNERAL ADDRESS. 



"Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day 
in Israel?'' 2 Samuel iii, 38. 

fOW inscrutable are the ways of Divine Providence ! 
How incomprehensible his majestic plans and pur- 
poses ! Although inscrutable to us, they are nevertheless 
for the best, upon the- whole. Why the good and great of 
earth should be so frequently taken away in their years 
of usefulness, and the depraved and vicious left to vex and 
torment society with their diabolical plots and practices, we 
can not tell. But we are sure that the God of infinite 
benevolence and power will make even the wrath of man 
to praise him, and the remainder of wrath he will restrain. 
His purposes will yet be accomplished. Our finite minds 
may not comprehend them, but they are all perfectly known 
to Him who sees the end from the beginning. Though they 
appear to us to move slowly, yet they are ever going for- 
ward to their completion. Guizot, one of the first French 
Protestant writers, says on this subject, that " Providence 
moves through time as the gods of Homer through space — 
it makes a step, and ages have rolled away." We must not 
grow impatient, therefore. We must not complain that the 
great thread of events, now unwinding from the reel of 
God's providence, runs off too slowly. The significant hand 
upon the dial of time is working round, and a just and 
righteous retribution is awaiting the enemies of human prog- 
ress and truth throughout the world. Though the one we 
recognized as the Chief Magistrate of our nation and the 



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THE PEOPLE'S KEEPSAKE 



flower of our Israel has been suddenly and ruthlessly stricken 
down, yet God rules and reigns, and will forever reign. 

To-day our nation is in mourning. The world resounds 
with the fall of its mighty chieftain. Our whole land is 
filled with lamentations of no ordinary character. The wail 
has gone up from every loyal house and home from the lakes 
to the gulf, and from ocean to ocean. In this vast funeral 
dirge which the nation chants over her mighty dead, all 
loyal hearts and voices are inseparably joined. In this 
great national mourning it is meet and proper for all ranks, 
sexes, and conditions to take a part. Let the officers of the 
General Government, the heads of all departments, the 
generals and commodores in our army and navy, join with 
the soldier, sailor, citizen, and freedman, and give vent to 
their inconsolable grief in a fit and becoming manner. And 
let the widow, the orphan, the matron, and the blushing 
maid all mingle their sobs and tears at the shrine of public 
sorrow. We need not tell you the sad and fearful import 
of these sable weeds around us to-day; nor need we com- 
ment upon the tears you have already shed in this time of 
public lamentation. All know too Avell the cause of this 
funeral occasion, and will join with us in swelling the gen- 
eral deluge of grief which has burst upon our country. 
For "there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in" 
our common "Israel." 

Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the United 
States, the subject of our remarks to-day, was born in Har- 
din county, Kentucky, February 12, 1809. In Mr. Lin- 
coln's boyhood his father, Thomas Lincoln, emigrated with 
his family to the State of Indiana, where he spent a number 
of years, and from thence he removed to Illinois. He set- 
tled near Decatur, where his late distinguished son won for 
himself the conspicuous and enviable name among the indus- 
trial classes of "rail-splitter." Though a young man well 
grown up, he determined not to leave his father and set up 
for himself in the world till he had seen him and his family 



FUNERAL ADDRESS, 



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comfortably settled in their new home, a good farm opened, 
and -well secured by a fence, the material of which ho pre- 
pared with his own industrious hands. Like many others 
of his times in the West, Mr. Lincoln had to overcome the 
embarrassments of a meager early education by close and 
untiring application and study after he had become a man. 
How nobly he accomplished this his various successes in 
subsequent life will fully prove. If the sources from which 
we derive our information be correct, it would seem that 
throughout his life Mr. Lincoln was a most stirring and 
laborious man. 

In 1832 he was elected captain in a volunteer company, 
and served his country as such in the Blackhawk war. 

In 1834 he was sent by his constituents to the Legislature 
of his State. 

In 1836 he obtained license in the profession of the law. 
In 1837 he removed to Springfield, the capital of the 
State, and made it the place of his general residence there- 
after, and his family. Mr. Lincoln served several terms in 
the Illinois Legislature, where he became acquainted with 
the late lamented Stephen A. Douglas. 

In 1817 Mr. Lincoln first took his seat in Congress. In 
politics he was an old-line Whig, and became an able advo- 
cate and defender of the jreneral doctrines of that once great 
and powerful party. Whenever the subject of slavery came 
up in Congress in the form of petitions, motions, or public 
debates, he always paid a profound deference to the princi- 
ples of human liberty. His great and good heart was too 
soft to support the barbarities of slavery, and his ear Avas 
too delicate to hear the clankings of its merciless chains. 
He became, therefore, a warm and vigorous supporter of the 
Wilmot Proviso in all territorial questions, a noble defender - 
of the right of petition on the slavery question, and an able 
advocate for the abolition of slavery in the District of 
Columbia, and of the infamous slave-trade throughout the 
world. 



SF 



6 



THE PEOPLE'S KEEPSAKE 



In 1848 Mr. Lincoln was elected a member of the Na- 
tional Convention, held in Philadelphia, which nominated 
General Taylor for President. 

In 1854 the famous Kansas-Nebraska Bill, by which the 
Missouri Compromise was abolished, was introduced into 
Congress by Mr. Douglas, and was finally passed. This gave 
rise to long and heated debates all over the country. Mr. 
Lincoln joined issue with Mr. Douglas upon the precedent 
and principles involved in that celebrated bill, and met him 
at Springfield and Peoria in public debate. 

Meanwhile the slavery question gave rise to the organiza- 
tion of the Republican party; not that the party ever in- 
tended to interfere with slavery in the Southern States, but 
simply to check the vaunting claims of the pro-slavery party, 
that it was a national institution, and that the Constitution 
defended them in their rights of human property any where 
within the territories of the General Government. 

In 18-56 Mr. Lincoln stood next to Mr. Dayton for the 
Vice-Presidency, in the Republican Convention, held at 
Philadelphia. 

In 1858 he was nominated by the Republicans, in their 
State Convention at Springfield, as a candidate for the 
United States Senate. This gave rise to those, seven great 
tournaments of public debate between himself and Mr. Dou- 
glas, which added much to his popularity, and secured him a 
handsome majority over Mr. Douglas in the popular vote, 
though Mr. Douglas siained his re-election to the Senate 
finally by the vote of the Legislature. 

In the Spring of 1860 Mr. Lincoln was nominated, by the 
Republican National Convention, held at Chicago, for the 
Presidency of the United States, and was duly elected at the 
subsequent Fall elections. 

It has been thought — and the opinion is not easy to con- 
trovert — that the pro-slavery party at the South endeavored 
to favor his election by dividing the Democratic party at 
the Charleston Convention, so as to take advantage of his 



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promotion, and secure a pretext for an attempt to divide 
the Union. 

On March 4, 1861, Mr. Lincoln was sworn into office. 
Never before had an American statesman to confront such 
difficulties and dangers as he had. A plot had been laid for 
his assassination. The life of General Scott was threatened 
also, if he should attempt to defend his inauguration. The 
tempest of sedition was already blowing. Most of the arms 
and munitions for defense had been purposely transferred to 
the South, by a Southern Secretary of War. The army had 
been scattered to the four winds, and the navy to the ends 
of the earth. Six of the slaveholding States had declared 
themselves out of the Federal Union, and had set up for 
themselves, under the name of the "Southern Confederacy," 
and had placed Mr. Davis at its head. But Mr. Lincoln did 
not falter. In his inaugural address he placed himself 
squarely in the gap, and proclaimed, "On earth peace, and 
good-will toward men." "In your hands, my dissatisfied fel- 
low-countrymen," said he, "and not in mine, is the moment- 
ous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. 
You can have no conflict without being yourselves the ag- 
gressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy 
the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to 
preserve, protect, and defend it. I am loth to close. We 
are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. 
Though passion may have strained, it must not break our 
bonds of affection. The mystic cords of memory, stretching 
from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living 
heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet 
swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely 
they will be, by the better angels of our nature." 

Thus the great and good man thought, and thus he spoke. 
And when it was announced that the inauguration was over, 
the great General Scott, wiping the tears from his furrowed 
cheeks, exclaimed, " Thank God ! we have a country and a 
President !" 



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THE PEOPLE'S KEEPSAKE. 



Ifi 



But the President soon found that the angry clouds were 
sweeping up toward the zenith; and on the 12th day of 
April they culminated into a storm, when Sumter shook 
under the lightning shock and thundering roar of open and 
defiant rebellion. Meanwhile the President had made up his 
mind, in accordance with the oath he had taken to preserve 
the Union, and so called out seventy-five thousand troops for 
that purpose. This movement was seconded hy a host of 
compatriots, who rallied nobly around him from all political 
parties in the country. Mr. Douglas, the world-renowned 
champion of the Democratic party, though one of the unsuc- 
cessful competitors in the late Presidential campaign, had, 
up to the time of the unprovoked assault upon Fort Sumter, 
hoped for peace, but was now one of the first to stand up in 
the great national awakening. He came forward, in the 
spirit of patriotism and enthusiasm, to the support of the 
Administration and the Government: and, hurrying home to 
Illinois, he gave the people the reflections of his gigantic 
mind and the best advices of his glowing heart. " That the 
present danger is imminent," said he, " no man can conceal. 
If war must come, if the bayonet must be used to maintain 
the Constitution, I can say, before God, that my conscience 
is clear." " What cause, what excuse do disunionists give 
us for breaking up the best government on which the sun 
of heaven ever shed its rays? They are dissatisfied with 
the result of a Presidential election. Did they never get 
beaten before ? Are we to resort to the sword when Ave get 
defeated at the ballot-box? I understand it that the voice 
of the people, expressed in the mode appointed by the Con- 
stitution, must command the obedience of every citizen. 
They assume, on the election of a particular candidate, that 
their rights are not safe in the Union. What evidence do 
they present of this? I defy any man to show any act on 
which it is based. What act has been omitted to be done ? 
I appeal to these assembled thousands that, so far as the 
constitutional rights of the Southern States — I will say the 



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constitutional rights of slaveholders — are concerned, nothing 
has been done and nothing omitted of which they can com- 
plain." " There has never been a time, from the day that 
Washington was inaugurated first President of these United 
States, when the rights of the Southern States stood firmer 
under the laws of the land than they do now; there never 
was a time when they had not as good a cause for disunion 
as they have to-day." 

" The slavery question is a mere excuse ; the election of 
Lincoln is a mere pretext. The present secession movement 
is the result of an enormous conspiracy, formed more than a 
year since — formed by leaders in the Southern Confederacy 
more than twelve months ago." "But this is no time for a 
detail of causes. The conspiracy is now known. Armies 
have been raised ; war has been levied to accomplish it. 
There are only two sides to the question. Every man must 
be for the United States or against it. There can be no 
neutrals in this war — only patriots and traitors." 

But before Mr. Douglas had uttered these glowing truths 
at Chicago, he had thundered them into the ears of the Leg- 
islature at Springfield, in which he rose to the very climax 
of majestic statesmanship and eloquence. " Whenever," 
said he, " our Government is assailed, when hostile armies 
are marching under new and odious banners against the 
Government of our country, the shortest way to peace is the 
most stupendous and unanimous preparation for war. The 
greater the unanimity the less blood will be shed. The more 
prompt and energetic the movement, and the more imposing 
in numbers, the shorter will be the struo^le." 

I need not stop to give you in detail the stupendous 
and unprecedented difficulties which still surrounded the 
President. The whole machinery of the civil Government 
required his prompt and indefatigable attention. Appoint- 
ments to the various offices at home were yet to be made by 
thousands. Ministers and consuls were to be dispatched to 
foreign governments. The army was still to be increased 



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10 



THE PEOPLE'S KEEPSAKE, 



beyond all precedent, and to be furnished with commissary 
stores, arms, and transportation. The numbers in the navy 
were to be doubled, or perhaps quadrupled, and vessels fitted 
out in numbers and magnitude equal to the occasion. The 
mind staggers under the contemplation of his countless 
duties and obligations. But you all remember how nobly 
he stood up for his country. 

Still his great heart ever yearned for his deluded enemies, 
and while he pressed on heroically to meet the mighty strug- 
gle which their vaunting ambition had inaugurated, he always 
held out to them the olive-branch of peace. 

It is a historical fact that nearly four years of unprece- 
dented war, pressed on with vigor, but with that clemency 
which is the characteristic of a great and unsullied mind, 
brought the country around to another Presidential cam- 
paign. Mr. Lincoln's course had been marked with calm- 
ness, moderation, fortitude, and patriotism, which amounted 
to moral heroism. Under his administration our country had 
prospered, notwithstanding the general embarrassments of a 
gigantic civil war. Our army and navy were crowned with 
unprecedented triumphs and universal glory. The wily foes 
of our country, both North and South, were being fast sub- 
dued. Our relation with foreign powers had been marked 
with friendship and cordiality, and our commerce still com- 
manded the attention of the world. All these things made a 
powerful appeal to the hearts of his countrymen, and richly 
did they repay him with the honor of a second election to 
office by overwhelming majorities, before unknown in the 
annals of American history. 

But before the President had taken his seat in his second 
term of office, another deep, diabolical, and deadly plot was 
laid by conspirators for his assassination. And in less than 
six weeks from the time of his late inauguration he was shot 
down in cold blood by the fiendish assassin, in the very heart 
of the nation's capital. My God ! has it come to this ? 
Have we sunk so prematurely to the level of the heathen? 



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Is there no security for human life among us ? Must the 
infamous crime of the most unprovoked and fiendish mur- 
der of our President be added to the insults and injuries 
imposed upon our country's yeomanry ? Must the very 
pillars of our General Government be hewn down by the 
foul hand of traitors and assassins, and the joy of an 
exultant people at the very dawn of returning peace, and 
the peans of victory over a conquered and scattered enemy, 
be so suddenly exchanged for the wail of unspeakable an- 
guish and the funeral dirge of their martyred President and 
friend ? " Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets 
of Askelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest 
the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph." 

God, have mercy upon us ! May the disconsolate widow 
and orphans of his family receive His sovereign smiles and 
blessings ! and may He ever comfort the crushed and sor- 
rowful hearts of all who have been called to mourn the loss 
of husbands, brothers, and friends in this patriotic struo-o-l e 
for the preservation of the Union and the protection of our 
homes ! 

We come now to notice the characteristics of the great 
American statesman, from several interesting stand-points. 

Mr. Lincoln was emphatically a national man and a 
patriot. The constant devotion of his energies for pre- 
serving the life of the nation throughout this sanguinary 
struggle appears to have been the one great purpose of his 
Administration. His heart was too large to love a General 
Government less comprehensive than his whole country. 
We can confidently say that to no man of any age was there 
ever intrusted greater interests and responsibilities, and that 
no man was ever better calculated to dispose of them in a 
manner every way creditable to himself, honorable to his 
country, and agreeable to the general sense of mankind. 
No man elected to the Presidency since the days of Wash- 
ington ever had such a hold upon the hearts and affections 
of the people, or was able to gather around him a brighter 



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THE PEOPLE'S KEEPSAKE 



constellation of civil and military officers. When standing 
at the helm of state, hie party feelings, if any he had, 
melted away into a noble patriotism, as quenchless and 
refulgent as the light of yonder sun. At his call the masses 
rose, in their majesty and might, to crush the hydra of 
rebellion, which was breathing out fire and death. And, by 
watchful days of anxious toil and wakeful nights of reflection 
and care, he taught the people a lesson which should have 
been learned before, that "eternal vigilance is the price of 
liberty." 

Mr. Lincoln was a moral man. As to his character, built 
upon the moral sentiments, he stands confessedly, in the eyes 
of all parties, unimpeachable. He was free from all those 
weak and vicious traits which go to make a bad man. He 
was as proverbial for his honesty as Aristides, the celebrated 
Athenian statesman, was for his justice. His sayings, like 
the axioms of mathematics, needed no proof, but gained at 
once the assent of the public mind. And his whole life 
was marked with temperance, industry, and hospitality. In 
many acts of his Administration he may have erred, yet he 
was doubtless as honest and sincere in his convictions of 
duty as he was firm and unyielding in the execution of them. 
If he erred at all, it was on the side of mercy. It seemed 
to us sometimes that we were infinitely more endangered by 
the characteristic kindness of his loving heart than we were 
by any weakness or error of his head. 

Mr. Lincoln was a benevolent man. What Chief Exec- 
utive of the nation had ever distributed so lavishly the public 
and lucrative offices of the Government among his political 
opponents before ? What rebel prisoner, condemned to death 
by the inexorable laws of war, ever failed to reach his sym- 
pathy and secure his pardon, who appealed to his clemency? 
What heart of wife or mother was not gladdened by his 
smiles and beneficence when he had heard its tale of sorrow ? 
Even the reckless deserter from his post in the army Avas 
melted to tears by his tenderness, and at his appeals went 



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F N E R A L ADD R E S S 



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back like a man to -win glory for himself and an honorable 
name for his posterity 

Aside from these noble traits of character, there were 
three things for which President Lincoln was deservedly 
noticeable, and will render him renowned throughout the 
civilized world. The first was the sanctity of his proclama- 
tions, in the appointment of public days for national humil- 
iation and thanksgiving. His proclamations were always 
orthodox in sentiment and profoundly religious. The second 
was the wisdom, benevolence, and statesmanship he mani- 
fested in issuing his great proclamation of freedom. There 
are still some opposers of this policy, even in the Church of 
God. But, we must say, by this one act he has accomplished 
more good than thousands and tens of thousands of such 
persons will accomplish in all their lives. And eternity 
alone can tell the glorious results of this truly-beneficent 
and morally-sublime act. The third great thing of which we 
wish to speak was the giving his heart to God. In early life 
he is said to have been skeptical, but not so in his after 
years. We have not had a President since the days of 
Washington who, in his public walks, seemed to have a 
better appreciation of this particular Scripture than himself: 
"In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy 
paths." Upon leaving Springfield for the City of AVashing- 
ton, he said to those who accompanied him to the cars : 

'•My friends, no one not in my position can appreciate the 
sadness 1 feel at this parting. To this people I owe all that 
I am. Here I have lived more than a quarter of a century; 
here my children were born, and here one of them lies 
buried. I know not how soon I shall see you again. A 
duty devolves upon me which is perhaps greater than that 
which has devolved upon any other man since the days of 
Washington. He never would have succeeded except for the 
aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all times relied. 
I feel that I can not succeed without the same Divine aid 
which sustained him, and on the same Almighty Being I 



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THE PEOPLE'S KEEPSAKE. 



place my reliance for support ; and I hope you, my friends, 
will all pray that I may receive that Divine assistance with- 
out which I can not succeed, but with which success is 
certain." 

It is said, upon the authority of the best public prints, 
that the President confessed that, after the loss of his son at 
"Washington, his mind underwent a great change on the sub- 
ject of religion ; that upon visiting the battle-field of Get- 
tysburg he gave himself up to God, and that with tearful 
eyes he professed to love the blessed and ever-adorable 
Jesus. The previous acknowledgments of the existence and 
providence of the Divine Being, the subsequent exhibition 
of a noble Christian spirit, and his settled habits of daily 
communion with his God in prayer of late, establish the 
above statements beyond doubt or controversy. 

Standing like some venerable patriarch among the Chris- 
tian denominations of the country, he once said, "Blessed 
be God, who, in this our great trial, giveth us the Churches !" 
And at another time, "God is my witness that it has been 
my constant anxiety and prayer that both myself and this 
nation should be on the Lord's side." 

An extract from his late inaugural address will also throAv 
light upon this pleasing subject, and strengthen our con- 
fidence in his Christian integrity : 

" Woe unto the world," says he, quoting from the Great 
Teacher, " because of oifenses, for it must needs be that 
offenses come; but woe unto that man by whom the offense 
cometh." 

"If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of 
those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs 
come, but which, having continued through his appointed 
time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives to both 
North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those 
by whom the offense comes, shall Ave discern that there is 
any departure from those divine attributes which the believ- 
ers in a living God always ascribe to him ? Fondly do we 



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hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war 
may speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it continue 
till all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and 
fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and till every 
drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another 
drawn with the sword : as was said three thousand years ago, 
so still it must be said, that ' the judgments of the Lord are 
true and righteous altogether.' With malice toward none, 
with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives 
us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in. 
We are to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who 
has borne the battle, and for his widow, and for his orphans — 
to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting 
peace among ourselves and with all nations." 

"Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man 
fallen this day in Israel?" Certainly you do, and feel it, 
too — 0, how keenly! At this sad calamity our old men 
stand appalled and stupefied, matrons wring their hands for 
very anguish, and the dear little children stop their gambols 
upon our streets to weep. The bullet that entered the head 
of our noble President has settled in the people's heart, and 
we are not the only nation that will feel the wound. Hence- 
forth the downtrodden and oppressed in these and other 
lands will put on weeds of mourning for him as for a de- 
parted brother and friend. His name will pass into history, 
not merely as the "honest" Abraham Lincoln, but as the 
divine statesman of America, the second Father of his 
Country, and the great moral hero of the nineteenth cen- 
tury. Future generations will build their monuments to 
grace and perpetuate his memory. It is quite unnecessary 
for us to do it; for his name is already sacredly embalmed in 
the hearts of his countrymen. 

In conclusion, let us pause a moment and contemplate the 
great moral results of this mysterious event. Mysterious, 
we say; for no man can give a proper solution to the cause 
of this foul assassination. Whether it was to mortify the 



16 



THE PEOPLE'S KEEPSAKE, 



pride of the nation, by prematurely removing its Chief Ex- 
ecutive, or to distract public attention so as to gain time in 
the desperate struggle to continue the rebellion, or to secure 
for the rebels themselves better and more advantageous 
terms of peace, none can tell. We have attributed it, in 
the main, to a diabolical determination on the part of the 
conspirators not to conform to wholesome rule an} r longer, or 
perhaps to the more wicked purpose not to submit at all to 
any terms of peace till after the President had been violently 
disposed of. If he had been removed by accidental or nat- 
ural causes, the violent opposers of his Administration might 
feel gratified with the results of such a providence without 
incurring the charge of criminality. But if any man can 
rejoice over his removal, or even approve of it, under the 
circumstances which attended his death, he is, in his heart, 
particeps criminis with his assassination, and is justly charge- 
able with murder in the sight of Almighty God. "We are not 
of that class who shrink from the responsibility of speaking 
fully the convictions of their mind on this subject. The con- 
demnation due to treason, assassination, and all their con- 
comitant vices should be thundered into the ears of the 
people from the bar, the pulpit, and the press, till the whole 
continent shall shake with horror at the blackness and 
infamy of such detestable crimes. 

But whatever might have been the causes which led to this 
assassination, let us not despond. There is a just and holy 
God that rules, and, under his divine providence, there is no 
public calamity which befalls a nation but brings with it some 
blessing in disguise. To-day the cause of our country is 
stronger than it ever was before. The Government will rise 
from this baptism of affliction regenerated; it will go on 
though its President has fallen. His blood has cemented 
afresh the noble arch of our Union, and his name will kindle 
sweet and unfading memories in the minds of all future gen- 
erations. This very act of assassination, if none other, has 
sealed the fate of the Southern Confederacy forever. It has 



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ci*owned the leading abettors of the rebellion with eternal 
infamy in the sight of the world. It has given the death- 
blow to slavery and tyranny in all North America, if not on 
the whole Western Continent. It has rendered treason more 
execrable than ever. It will inaugurate a more wise and 
stringent policy in treating with rebels. It will fire the soul 
of the patriot and strengthen the nerves of the soldier. It 
will quicken the march of universal freedom, and thrill the 
hearts of future generations with the imperishable sentiment 
of Union and liberty, for which the President became a 
martyr. Noble martyr ! While the eye of the nation shall 
weep over thee, and the hand of affection shall plant immor- 
telles around thy grave, we will still look aloft, and comfort 
our hearts with the pleasing assurance that, crowned with 
immortality and peace, thy soul still marches on. 

By this great national affliction we are again reminded of 
our dependence on God. " It is he that sitteth upon the 
circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grass- 
hoppers." In the infinitude of his w T orks, " the nations are 
as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of 
the balance; behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little 
thing." He it was who first planted us ; it is by him that we 
have been preserved, and our destiny is still in his hands. 
If we acknowledge him in all our ways, he will direct our 
path to prosperity, virtue, and national honor. Let us seek 
his face evermore, and secure his divine favor ; for " blessed 
is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people w T hom 
he hath chosen for his inheritance." 

By this sad calamity we have received another admonition 
of the uncertainty and brevity of human life. We are all 
moving on with ceaseless tread to meet our great common 
enemy. The fiat has gone forth, " Dust thou art, and unto 
dust shalt thou return." A few more evolutions of time, 
and the great drama of life will be over. Warned by the 
judgments of God which are abroad in the land, let me say 
to you all, my friends, " Be ye also ready ; for in such an 



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18 



THE PEOPLE'S KEEPSAKE. 



hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh." May God 
grant us a full preparation, through the blood of the Cross, 
for our solemn change, and then admit us into the regions 
of bliss and immortality, beyond the havoc of political revo- 
lution, the tramp of hostile armies, and the thunders of 
cruel war ! 



fe_ 



jE 




AND EXTEAGTS PROM RECOMMENDATIONS RECEIVED. 




Mount Carmel, III., April 25, 18G5; 
Rev. Hiram Sears: Dear Sir, — Believing that your sermon on the death of the late President, 
delivered on the 23d inst., in the Methodist Episcopal Church in this city, would be read with deep 
interest by the public, we take the liberty to ask a copy of the same for publication in the Mount 
Carmel Register. 

Yours truly, E. B. GREEN, M. J. 1IABBERT0N, 

ROBERT BELL, ROBT. PARKINSON, 

J. S. STEWART, C. 0. B. GOFORTH. 

REPLY. 

Mount Cakmel, III., April 25, 1865. 
Gentlemen, — If the address you have done me the honor to refer to will be of any service in 
mitigating the general grief which has seized the public mind, or strengthen the hope of our coun- 
try's cause in the least, you will be welcome to a copy of it for publication, as soon as I can pre- 
pare it. 

Yours, respectfully, HTRAM SEARS. 



Mount Carmel, III., May 15, 18C5. 

Rev. Hiram Sears, 'A. M. : Dear Sir, — Your Funeral Address on the death of our late lamented 
President, published in the Register, of this city, is the matt, comprehensive and eloquent address, and 
the most appropriate tribute of respect to the great American statesman that we have read any 
where, and should be published in pamphlet form and read by the million. It is invaluable as a lit- 
erary and biographical production, and will be cheap at any price. Please accept our congratulations. 
Yours, respectfully, 

E. B. OREEN, R. PARKINSON, 

ROBERT BELL, C. 0. B. COFORTH, 

M. J. HABBERTON, R. K. STEES. 

J. J. LESCHER, M. D., 



It has received the commendation of the following persons also: Bishop Simpson, of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church; Rev. Roisert Alay^, President of M'Kendree College ; Professors Jones and 
Swahlen, of the same institution; Professor J. V. Bellamy, Principal of the Mount Carmel City' 
High School. 

Governor Oolesry, of Illinois, says: "It r ys a just tribute to the high qualities of Abraham 
Lincoln, is a faithful narration of the leading- events of his life, and will be read, I hope, by many 
citizens." 

Governor Morton, of Indiana, says: "It is eloquent, truthful, and patriotic, and is well worthy 
of publication in a more enduring form than a newspaper affords." 

Rev. J. Morrison Reid, P. P., editor of the Western Christian Advocate, says: "I am glad to 
know that it is called* for in pamphlet form. Its extensive circulation and perusal can not but 
tend to create the rigiif public sentiment at this hour, love for our lacerated nation, and hatred of 
all that could wound or destroy it." 

Rev. B. F. Crary, editor of the Central Christian Advocate, says: "It is brief, plain, and just. 
The great man fallen deserves such words; and I think they will do good wherever they may be 
read. You can not circulate too widely such sentiments as are contained in your sermon." 

Bishop Simpson, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, says: "I have had time only to 
glance hastily over your sermon. So far as I could read I was much pleased." 





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